The Lying Saga
by timeandcirque
Summary: If your twin expected you to live her life while she started a new one as a vampire's assistant, would you? How far would you continue the lies?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey :)**** So basically, it's stressed me out for _so _long that i've been writing this story on Wattpad instead of here, so i decided enough was enough and i was going to make things right in the world and post it all on here, bit by bit, and pretend like i'm writing it here for the first time XD **

**So, enjoy, hope you like it!  
**

Chapter 1

*Sophia*

Basically, it all started when I found out I had a twin. It's not like I was searching for her or anything, I just started speaking to this person on twitter, then got really freaked out when I saw her picture and realised she looked exactly like me. One long and very weird conversation later, we had established one thing. We were twins. Her name is Ash, identical to me of course.

Without that little detail, none of this would have worked.

Anyway, turns out she had a pretty bad life down where she lived, she preferred not to tell me all the details, so I said she could come and visit me. Kind as this sounds, the main reason I told her this was simply because I wanted to meet my twin. I mean, who wouldn't?

The day she arrived, we wandered around for ages. She told me to take her to 'everywhere I go', but to be honest, as nobody knew about this twin of mine, the usual hangouts were off limits. So we ended up just taking a walk round all the lesser known alleys, talking about our whole lives, y'know, catching up. That is, until we saw the flyer. My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw the scrawl on the front that read 'Cirque Du Freak'. Half of me was sure that this would be a joke, that one of my friends would be round the corner silently laughing at how I actually believed for a second that everything I had read was true. Then I remembered how whenever I watched Doctor Who-and that was often, by the way, I scorned the type of people that would see aliens or suspicious happenings and go 'Wayne...is that you? Come on now its not funny anymore!', and how I swore that if I ever saw anything out of the ordinary I would not dismiss it as 'not possible' .

So with trembling hands, I picked up the flyer, and any doubts I had instantly fell away as my eyes were drawn to the line which read 'Larten Crepsley and Madame Octa'. Ash was at a loss as to why this meant so much to me, why I HAD to go, but she went along with my desire to go. So off we went.

Destiny played a huge part in our lives that day. It gave me the life I had always dreamed of, and it gave Ash a way out. For when I confronted Mr Crepsley and he felt compulsed to blood me, I had to say no goodbyes, no farewells. None out loud, at least. As far as anyone else knew, I was not leaving. I was not going anywhere. Yet I was, only Ash was taking my place.

*Sophia*

I packed a bag full of clothes and bits and bobs, trying not to take anything too noticeable that people would realise were gone, yet at the same time wanting to bring my favourite dress, shoes, to enhance the memories that went with them. I silently stepped out of my home for the last time, careful not to wake anyone to avoid suspcious questions about where I was going, and walked to the bus stop. Ash stepped out of the shadows behind the shelter. She had stayed in some abandoned house with Mr Crepsley that night, as creeped out as she was by the whole vampire thing, she had no choice but to accept the fact that her twin was now half-a-one.

And anyway, it was giving her a chance at a new life. So she went along with it, reluctantly. That bus ride was crucial. I had less than an hour to tell her as much as I could about my life. Well, the main points. I had no doubts she would be able to grasp being me after a while, it was just little things like picking up my accent and the fact I called everybody pet and jokes she wouldn't get that would unnerve her at first.

As we stepped off the bus, I pointed my twin off in the direction of the coffee shop where I picked up my 'large americano' every morning without fail, then turned around to see Mr Crepsley standing behind me. I said silent goodbyes to Ash, then me and Mr Crepsley walked off into the night.

*Ash *

Well, first day of being my twin. I really fervently hoped I would manage to pull this off, for if I didn't then how would I explain to anyone and everyone where she was? "Um...she just walked off with some _vampire_?" Yeah. That sounded sooo believable, even if it was the truth. So, I walked into her classroom, which was empty, aside from the teacher. She turned to me and said 'Morning Sophia' with a scottish twang. So far, so good. After a few minutes of sitting in awkward silence with this scottish woman, sipping my coffee, I started to worry what would happen when her friends turned up. Sophia had shown me pictures of them, so I knew who to talk to and sit with, but I knew I was really bad with names and I was petrified of them finding out I was not who they thought I was.

But as it happened, it was not so bad. Turns out, we had a science exam first thing, so I just sat quiet and listened to her friends fret about failing and what empirical formula was and how they had no ruler, occasionally chipping in with a "me neither" or a "oh god I know". As we were walking to the exam, though, the one known as Gwen turned to me and asked if I had watched Hollyoaks that night.

"uh...no...i had to miss it!" was my immediate response-i congratulated myself on my good save-then she started to babble about characters and scenes that were "hilarious" or "totally lame" and I had to nod like I understood. I made a mental note to start watching it again. I used to, as a kid, but I hadn't seen it for years. The exam was not too bad, easy in fact, but I had to keep reminding myself that this was my life now, and I had to actually make an effort with it. Five minutes to spare, and I put down my pen, letting my mind wander as I wondered how my twin was doing.

*Sophia*

Dawn was on the horizon when Crepsley and I left Ash, so as you can imagine he had to get out of the sun-fast. We flitted (much to my delight!) to the outskirts of town, where we found an abandoned building to hole up in. I say found, really I recommended it to him. It was pretty nearby where I went to school, on the corner of the street in fact, and I had often passed it and wondered what it had been used for back in the day, and thought to myself if I ever needed to hide, I could hide there.

As we stepped through the window, Crepsley had turned to me and said "I think you will make a fine vampire, if you hone your skills and apply yourself to the tasks which I will set you, that is.' With that, he turned on his heel and walked off into another room, his red cape billowing behind him. I had to hide my smile until he was safely sleeping away from the sun's rays, his last comment sounded like something that teachers used to write on my report.

"She is a fine student, but needs to apply herself more to tasks which she has been set." I chuckled silently at myself, then pondered what to do next. Checking the time on my phone I saw that it was just past 9. I was meant to be in my biology exam by that time. Ha! Having said that, however, I really did have nothing to do till dark. I looked through my bag at my meagre possessions. I was glad that I had taken my phone as opposed to giving it to Ash. Reckless perhaps-but it meant that I had one last link to my human life. I was not ready to break off all ties yet. And it also meant that I could contact my twin if needs be.

*Ash*

Looking back on the day, being my twin was easier than I thought. I muddled through, talking about safe subjects like food, and the exam, and Doctor Who-which my twin had told me she was obsessed with, and luckily I watched. I had read Percy Jackson, so I even grasped some of the references to Greek Gods the gang threw about. One thing bothered me, though. She had a friend-Ree, her name was, and she often made offhand comments to me about vampires-well, one vampire in particular...Crepsley.

I just did not understand how she knew who he was. Did she know Sophia had joined his ranks? If so, why had she not said anything to me? I desperately wanted to ask her, but if I had gotten the wrong end of the stick there would be no undoing the damage. And anyway, she did not talk about him as if he was real. Strange as it sounded, it was like he was just a character in a book or a film or something. I decided the best thing to do would be to have a look round my twin's room and see if I could find any clues there.

Pulling out the ipod she had given me, a little green thing, I looked out of the window, gazing at the world passing me by as I travelled via bus back to 'my' home, but none of the music seemed to be anything I knew, or even in english for the most part. I settled on listening to a bit of Avril Lavigne-and closed my eyes.

*Sophia*

It was getting darker, so I realised that Mr Crepsley would be awakening any minute. The day had passed by almost in the blink of an eye, I thought, as I sat with my headphones plugged into my phone, listening to 'I'm With You-Avril Lavigne'.

The song brought back so many memories. I remembered lying on my bed at night, listening to it and imagining the scene of meeting Mr Crepsley, playing out the conversation we would have. I remembered walking home in the dark, acting out the lyrics on the premise that I was in the countryside and nobody could see me...but then shouting _Are you there? _just in case he could. And I remembered reading the part in the ninth book where he died, playing this song and wanting to cry for him, but I just could not, and then explaining it away to myself by thinking "Darren couldn't cry for him either." Suddenly I snapped out of my memories, rummaging around in my bag and pulling out the Saga which I had taken with me. I honestly did not know whether to show them to Crepsley or not. Obviously I had intended to when I brought them with me, but now I was not so sure. I did not know whether this was his future, and if it was, whether he would want to know it. At least, I thought to myself, he will not find and read them by himself, for he is illiterate.

I decided I would mention to him, if there ever was a right time, and as I heard sounds of him waking and emerging from the next room, I hurriedly replaced the books back in my bag, away from sight and awkward questions from the vampire himself.

"Evening Mr Crepsley" I called to him, in the same voice I used to say morning to my English teacher Dr Grimes in.

"Indeed, it is a good evening, Sophia. Are you ready to depart? We must stop to feed as a matter of course, and then we shall be rejoining the Cirque du Freak. They are set up not far from here."

"Sure" I said excitedly as I gathered up my things. My first night as a Vampire's Assistant was about to begin.

*Ash*

I was at a loss. I had checked through all her shelves and drawers, and was none the wiser. All I had found was a picture of David Tennant with his hair photoshopped ginger and 'Mr Crepsley' written at the bottom, which told me nothing. I saw that she had not been joking when she told me she was obsessed with Doctor Who, I counted about 50 pictures of the doctor on her wall, it was like some kind of shrine!

But seriously, I had no idea how to go about finding out what was happening, without confronting Ree. As it happened, however, I did not need to confront her myself. A message popped up on her computer screen-'Ree is calling you on Skype."

"Aha. Time to sort this out" I muttered under my breath as my finger hovered over 'answer'.

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

*Sophia*

We arrived at the Cirque a couple of hours later. Mr Crepsley had been decidedly impressed with the fact I drank blood from a human first time. He said it took most assistants at least a month to work up to it, and that I had good strength of character, but honestly? It was more to do with the fact that I remembered how Darren had nearly died from lack of blood, and it took something as terrible as the death of his friend to make him drink it, and I did not at all want to go down that road and make the same mistake. I could feel the burst of energy spreading through my veins as Mr Crepsley led me towards Mr Tall's tent to let him know we had arrived, it was like coffee only a hundred times more effective.

"Larten." Mr Tall said before he could have even known who was about to enter the room.

"Hibernius. May I introduce to you my assistant, Sophia Attwood."

"You have taken an assistant?" He seemed genuinely surprised, so I thought to myself that these events must be happening before Darren's time. Then I realised just how weird it was that I was figuring out where my life fitted in with the timeline of a book.

"Yes. Well after that nasty business with the boy known as Steve Leopard, I got round to thinking I perhaps should find myself an assistant after all. I did investigate a few of his friends, but none of them struck me as vampire material. So here we are." I tuned out the rest of their conversation to concentrate on my thoughts. That nasty business with Steve? So that meant Crepsley had encountered Steve, his future killer, but not Darren?

"Ah" I thought to myself as I remembered what happened at the end of the Saga. It was no longer Darren's destiny to face Steve. By stopping his younger self from stealing Octa he had ensured it was someone else's...oh gods. I froze as I realised what this meant. It was my destiny. And I was the only one that knew.

I felt a sharp tapping on my shoulder and jumped.

"Sophia. Are you with us?"

"Ye..yeah." I replied, still shaken.

"Mr Tall was just informing you that there is a tent spare, next to the one in which Evra resides. One of the Little People will take you to it. I trust you have no objections to this?"

"No-that's great."

I followed the Little Person outside. It was with a weird sense of foreboding that I realised that I knew pretty much what my life would entail from that moment on. And then I had an even worse thought. Filling with dread, I pulled out the last book and flicked to the page that told me just what I wanted least to hear.

"A victim of destiny"

"They wouldn't be responsible for their actions"

"Most people have free will. But there are a few who don't"

I closed the book again as the Little Person nodded in the direction of Evra's tent, feeling sick.

And from that moment I knew only one thing. My life was a challenge set up by Des Tiny, and by asking to be blooded, I had accepted it. But one thing was for sure, I would not follow my destiny without a fight.

*Ash*

I sat on the edge of the bed in the room that was masquerading as mine, feeling sick. I had chickened out. I hadn't answered the call. Ree had sent me various messages. 'Lo' 'Soppppppp?' 'Yo asswipe, you there?' but I had ignored every one of them.

I scrolled through their previous messages, to see if they had any conversations about the mysterious Crepsley, when I saw a link to something on Google. Why on earth had I not thought of this earlier? I clicked the link and, ignoring the picture of the hat shaped like a cupcake which came up, typed into the search bar 'Mr Crepsley'. Whoa. 490,000 results. Promising.

Flicking through the various websites, I realised that they were all in fact talking about some book series called 'The Saga Of Darren Shan.' I had definitely seen that name somewhere on my twin's shelves, so I walked over to the book case to try and find it. I found Darren Shan, no problem. But it wasn't 'The Saga', it was just some weird books with terrifying covers that were about demons or something. An idea forming in my mind, I clicked back onto Skype and replied to Ree.

"Hey! Wanna go to town after school tomorrow? I need to go shopping!"

*Sophia*

I walked quickly towards Evra's tent, eager to take my mind off the fate I just realised I had. Peering around the flap of the tent I called out "Evra? Hello? You there pet?"

"Pet?" He turned and walked over, suspiciously, giving me a weird look. "And who are you, anyway?"

"Uh...yeah its just something I say. I call everyone pet. And I'm Sophia"

"Ohhhh!" a look of recognition washed over his scaly face. "You're Crepsley's assistant, aren't you?" I nodded. "Sorry about that-been a long day. Mr Tall told me you were coming but I completely forgot. So...you're a half vampire are you?"

"Why yes I am!" I laughed. "And you are half snake, aren't you?"

"Together we make one regular person." he grinned at me and we both started to laugh.

"Yeah," I said in between laughs. "but the other two halves would make some weird snake vampire creature."

"True. Very true. Anyway, apparently you'll be helping me with jobs and stuff tomorrow."

"Am I?"

"Did Mr Tall not tell you?"

I smiled sheepishly. "Yeahh...i wasn't really listening."

Evra laughed. "Were you having some deep and meaningful thoughts about life as a vampire?"

As soon as Evra said that I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to explain how I was not in control of my own life, and show him the books, and point out that in some alternate timeline he was talking to a scared little kid who only became a vampire to save his best friend's life. I needed to tell him. I really did. But I couldn't. Instead I just snapped

"I was just tired. So I have to go now. See you in the morning." and ran out of the tent, leaving him with a startled and somewhat hurt expression on his face.

As soon as I sat down in the hammock which had been hung up in my tent, I put down my bag with tears streaming down my face. I felt like I was the fly that had walked into Mr Tiny's web, and I couldn't do anything except sit and watch my life unfold how he planned.

*Ash*

As I prepared to live my twin's life for the second day running, I felt a smug smile creep across my face as I recalled Ree's answer the night before.

"Sure thing Sop-i need to go shopping too!"

Easy as pi. Within twenty four hours, I would have all the answers to the thoughts which had been troubling me.

I studied the school timetable as I sat in Sophia's usual seat in the classroom, to see what I had in store for the day. Drama-i noted-was first thing. That was the only lesson which I had without any of my twin's little gang, Ree, Gwen and Sadie, which would be interesting. At that moment the door burst open, and a figure walked in, carrying about five bags which she dropped on the floor with a large bang.

"Oh god." She groaned. "We have drama today. Ew. I hate the play we're doing. And I hate Mr Rawley." Everyone ummed and ahhed and agreed with her, despite the fact that most of them did not even learn drama. I had taken an immediate dislike to her as soon as I had clapped eyes on her the previous day, although I may have been biased as my twin _had_ warned me to stay away from her. All I knew was that her name was Kerry, and as far as most of the class was concerned, she could do no wrong. I resisted making any snide comments as she walked by me-or should I say barged past me-and instead went back to looking at the timetable. Well, I thought to myself, Drama will be just great.

*Sophia*

I woke up early, to the bustling sounds of life at the Cirque, dressed hurriedly in a red checky dress, leather jacket and tights, then went to find Evra, who was just leaving the campgrounds.

I called after him and he turned to look at me, beckoning me over.

"Hey-i was just setting out to find food for the Little People, I didn't realise you were awake."

Relieved to find that he did not seem to be annoyed in any way by my sudden outburst last night, I ran to catch up with him and followed him out of the grounds.

As we walked through the fields and woods, looking for creatures that we could catch and take back to the Little People, Evra told me about what his life had been like before he had joined the Cirque. I already knew the story, of course, but I did not want to appear rude so I commented in all the right places-and anyway, it was different when he was telling it. In return, I told him about my life before I was blooded, and how I came to be Crepsley's assistant, missing out the part where I was a victim of destiny for obvious reasons.

When we had collected enough and returned to the Cirque, Evra showed me around and introduced me to all the many performers as we took part in the jobs that helped keep the Cirque running, such as feeding the Wolfman, repairing tents and cooking dinner. As I cooked a stew, watching the sun go down over the hills, my thoughts turned to my friends. Ree, Sadie and Gwen.

As bad as it sounded, I had not really thought about them since waving goodbye to my twin, but I just wished I could have told them that I was leaving. I don't know whether they would have believed me, anyway. I mean, lets face it, the only proof I had were my vampire scars, and scars on your fingertips don't actually _prove _you are a vampire. At least in a weird sort of way they subconsciously would know how my life turned out. Well, Ree would. Gwen had read the first few books and then declared it 'lame',(i laughed as I imagined saying to her 'Hey-that's my life you're talking about') and Sadie had only seen the film. "Hang on a second." I thought to myself, and backtracked my thoughts, an idea forming in my mind.

Ree would know how my life turned out. Ree would know. She would know I was Darren's replacement _and _she would know what that meant. If I could only contact her in some way, she could be the key. I couldn't tell the others about how my life would turn out, but she already knew.

*Ash*

As I left the Drama classroom, I realised just why my twin had told me to stay away from Kerry. That past hour had been one of the most awkward of my life. I had sat in the corner of the dreary classroom, with the peeling walls and old photos of past productions decidedly better than the one we were attempting to produce, and watched as Kerry and her little friends planned some outing, making it obvious and clear that there was no way I was invited.

There were only three others aside from me and Kerry in Drama, and all three of them were Kerry's cronies. I saw the teacher, Mr Rawley, look on awkwardly as they discussed what they were going to wear to this circus thing they were going to, occasionally he had attempted weakly to try and make them work but they were having none of it. They had sat and chattered like old people's teeth for the full hour while I watched the clock and picked my nail varnish off my nails. To be honest I did not know how my twin had put up with this-but then there really was nothing I could do aside from attempt to join in, which would have been even more awkward.

When the bell rang I had packed up my things gladly and left to find Sadie and Gwen so we could go to History. As I spotted them walking I fell into step with them and sighed.

"God I hate Drama."

I did not even think twice about the conversation which Kerry and her clan were having, which looking back, was a big mistake.

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

*Sophia*

"It's Sophia, isn't it?" Cormac Limbs sat down next to me as I stirred the dinner and thoughts stirred in my head.

"That's right. Hey."

"Listen, Mr Crepsley has sent for you. D'you know which his tent is, or d'you want me to take you?" He had a slight american twang to his voice, I noticed.

"Just point me in the right direction- I'm sure I will find it, but if you don't mind can you tend the stew while I'm gone?"

"Why I sure will. You just pass me the ladle and i'll serve it up to everyone. We all help out here, see."

"Taa." I said as I walked off to see Mr Crepsley. I entered his tent, wondering what he wanted.

"Ah, Sophia. I was awaiting your arrival. Listen, I am sure you have heard that there is a show tonight."

"Yeah...i have." I said, wondering where this was going.

"Do you have any suitable attire for performing?" he asked me.

"Will this do?" I indicated the outfit I was currently wearing.

"It's not very striking I have to say, but at least with the red of the dress, it shall suitably indicate that you are my assistant."

"Yeah, thats why I bought it." He gave me a strange look, but what I had said was the truth. For at least a year I had been buying various red outfits to show that I was his assistant-not that I actually was at that point of course.

"So are you ready? We shall be going on in half an hour. Just enough time for you to polish Madame Octa's cage and have a practice with the flute." It suddenly clicked.

"Wait...you want me to help you out on the stage? But i've never even controlled Madame Octa before? What if she bites you?"

"She will not. What I say on the stage is just a farce. Yes, she is incredibly dangerous, but I have experimented with various tricks for so long to know that she will not bite me even if provoked. I am perfectly safe. It is only other people who have to fear for their safety."

'Well that wasn't in the books.' I thought to myself as I set about preparing for the impending show.

*Ash*

I was in high spirits as I walked into town with Ree that evening. We stopped off at boots because she wanted to pick up a new bottle of her favourite perfume-Someday, by Justin Bieber, then we headed to Waterstones, so I could find the Darren Shan Saga.

As far as Ree was concerned, I told her I was buying them for my cousin who was coming to visit, she did not seem convinced, but the fact that my large purchase meant that she would get lots of points on her Waterstones card meant that she pressed the matter no further.

We went downstairs to where all the teen books were, then I scanned the shelves for 'Darren Shan.' while Ree was off looking at other things. Eventually I had to admit defeat. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Ree-help!" I called. "i can't find Darren Shan!"

"Oooo" she said in a mock spooky voice. "Has Mr Tiny taken them away?" I faked a laugh. "Seriously Sop, they're on the same shelf they always are-see?"

"Oh yeah. Aha. Whats going on with me today?" I asked, rhetorically of course, as I gratefully slid the whole series off the shelf and into my arms. We paid at the till, Ree using her points card of course, and then left the shop. It was dark outside, although when we had entered Waterstones it had been light.

"I love it when its dark. It feels so magical and spooky." said Ree as I checked the reciept of my books. Whoops. I had spent all my twin's savings. Oh well, I thought. It was not as if she would need money, being a vampire and all. And anyway, it was for a good cause.

"Eee, you didn't say 'I know you do' this time?" Ree looked at me questioningly.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, whenever I say I love the dark-you always go 'I know you do', but this time you did not say anything."

"Do I?"

"Yeaaah?"

"Oh. Oh yeah." I was saved explaining myself as we turned the corner and walked straight into Kerry and her crew.

"Eee hello!" they chorused as they noticed us, all smiling as if they were genuinely happy to see us, but their eyes told me otherwise.

"What are you doing here?" one of her friends-Leah-asked us.

"Just went to buy some stuff, yknow." Ree said.

"Ooooh nice! What did you get?" Kerry beamed at us with her fake cheesy smile, as she looked in my Waterstones bag and picked up the first book-'Cirque du Freak'.

"Books-nice."she said as she handed it back to me, clearly disinterested. "Wait-hang on?" No sooner than I had taken the book back from her, she grabbed it back for a closer look at the cover. Her friends all crowded round to see what she was looking at.

"Hey-look."Ally pointed at the title. "Isn't that the same thing we're going to?"

"No, Ally." Leah elbowed her. "We're going to the circus. Not some french thing."

"I'm pretty sure it's not just a circus though? Give us the tickets, Kerry?" Mona joined in. Me and Ree stood there awkwardly, not sure what to say, until Kerry pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the time.

"Oh Lordy Lord, we're going to be late. Come on guys, we gotta run."

She shoved the book at me and they left in a hurry.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Ree, wondering what she made of their whole conversation.

"Hear what?" Ree looked up from her phone. "Yeah, listen, I gotta go now, see you tomorrow yeah?" She had been on her phone the whole time, I gathered, as she sped off home.

*Sophia*

From backstage I watched as Gertha Teeth, the Wolfman and all the regulars performed their acts, to gasps of shock and applause from the awed crowd. As Rhamus Twobellies left the stage to wild clapping, I heard Mr Tall announce our act.

"And next we have a most spectacular set of performers. Larten Crepsley, and Madame Octa."

With a nudge and a thumbs up from Evra, I stepped through the curtain after Mr Crepsley. He stood centre stage, and introduced his act, while I stood in the shadows until the time came for me to control Octa via the flute. I watched the audience as they recoiled in their seats when he produced Madame Octa from her cage, my eyes flicking from one human to another. Whoa. I had started to refer to people as 'humans' now. When did that happen? I heard Mr Crepsley introduce me-

"I shall need my assistant for this part of the act, if you would please step forward Sophia."-so I did as he asked. He handed me the flute and I played a few notes, giving Madame Octa commands in my head as I did so.

"Crawl up his neck to his head. Spin a web over his mouth."

It was not too taxing to be honest, after I got over the fact that i-Sophia- was performing on stage at the _Cirque Du Freak _itself, I began to enjoy myself. When I had played my part and handed the flute back to Crepsley, I turned for one final glance of the audience's reactions. But I never expected to see just what I saw-or rather, who I just saw.

I blinked in surprise, but before I could look again to see whether I had really seen them, or whether it was just my imagination, Mr Crepsley had ushered me off the stage and the next act was on.

"Evra" I whispered, I did not want anyone else to hear me.

"Yeah?"

"Will you do me a favour? When you are on stage, will you check whether there's a group of four or so people, about my age, one of them with proper huge hair?"

"Course. Why? Who are they?"

"If they are who I think they are," I sighed. "They're trouble."

*Ash*

Upon finishing the books, I honestly had so many questions for my twin I did not know where to begin. Not that it mattered, of course, it wasn't likely I was going to speak to her any time soon. It was obvious what had happened though now, to me. Sophia and Ree must have been fans of this book series, hence why Ree always mentioned it, and that is why when we found the flyer for that Freak Show thing she got so freaked out.

Through the books, she knew that Mr Crepsley was a vampire...and she decided to take a risk and ask him to blood her. She knew she would have to leave town, but the fact that I had turned up was a handy way out. Me taking her place meant that she did not have to fake her death like the guy in the story-Darren-so she could just waltz off with the vampire and leave me to sort her life out.

I suddenly felt oddly cheated. I mean, I knew pretty much what was happening when she left, and I was really glad of the chance to start again with a new life-but to be honest it was all lies. My life-i mean. I couldn't remember the last time someone had called me Ash. I could fill in for her forever, but I could never be her. I think even Ree was noticing I was different.

Ree. I suddenly realised what my twin had done. Her and Ree had this dream, this dream to be vampire's assistants and live at the cirque. I could tell that just by the way Ree spoke to me about the story. And as soon as she got the opportunity to fulfil that dream, off she went. Never once thinking about how it was Ree's dream too. If anyone had been decieved, I realised, it was Ree. Could I really keep doing this to her?

I suppose I had to. Picking up the books which I had strewn over the floor, I went to place them on the shelf next to the other Darren Shan books. They fitted in the space perfectly, which I thought was odd. Could it be that Sophia had taken her copies with her? Why would she do that? Unless, I realised, unless she did not want me to see them, she wanted me to be kept in the dark. Silently, I seethed.

**Review? :) **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

*Sophia*

As soon as Evra left the stage he came rushing over to me.

"Those people you described? They were definitely there. Sitting on the fourth row, to the right, am I correct?"  
"Something like that." I had no idea what to do. They must have recognised me, how could I not? Would they come and try to find me? All sorts of thoughts ran through my head. The first one, oddly, being that I should paint my face green and pretend to be some relation of Evra. The next, more reasonable thought I had was that I needed to hide. Drastic-i know. But I just could not deal with them right now.

"Evra-is there anywhere I can hide?"

He looked surprised by my question. "Well, if you really need to hide, I guess you could go to Crepsley's tent. You could hide in his coffin-nobody will find you there."

That sounded like a good plan, so I hurried off there, expecting to see Mr Crepsley as I entered the room but he was nowhere to be found. Ah well, at least I did not have to explain to him what on earth I was doing. I clambered into the coffin and shut the lid-it was pretty stuffy but I quickly got used to it. This was an odd experience, the first time I had been in a coffin since being made a vampire. After five minutes or so, I decided I quite liked it, it was oddly relaxing, and let no light in at all. I had always hated any sort of light when I was trying to sleep, I suppose you could say I was born to be a vampire. I started to drift off, but quickly shook myself.

How embarrassing would that be if Mr Crepsley returned to find me asleep in his coffin, with my only explanation to why I was there was that I was 'hiding'. About an hour passed, and I began to think about getting out and going back to my tent. Perhaps they had not noticed me after all. Or perhaps they just had no interest in finding out what was going on. Suddenly, the lid of the coffin was open and I squinted through the sudden bright light, expecting to find Mr Crepsley. But no. The face of someone I had expected never to see again was staring back at me. Kerry.

We stared eachother down for a few seconds. Then she spoke.

"You work at a _freak show_? I always thought you were weird...but seriously? I saw you playing the flute before with that spider."

"Oh god that made me feel ill. I can't stand spiders. I have a _phobia._" came the voice of Leah. Oh great. They were all here.

"So come on, tell us why you're here? Or are you just gunna not say anything?"

"Wait...so you followed me?" I finally found my tongue.  
"I'm not going to answer any of your questions til you answer a few of ours."

"Yeah." Leah interrupted. "Like what are you doing in a coffin? Are you some kinda weird vampire obsessed freak?"

"Hey guys." Ally called out from the corner of the room, where she was rifling through Mr Crepsley's things.

Oh no. I suddenly realised what was among them. Please...don't let her find the...

"Oh god look. Look at that. There's blood in all of these. Ew that's absolutely revolting." Charna's guts.

"Do you like-drink that?" Kerry asked me, a disgusted look on her face.

"Listen." I muttered suddenly and they all stopped in their tracks, evidently startled. "This isn't my stuff. None of it. It's Mr Crepsley's."

"You mean that creepy ginger guy?"

"Thats the one. And if he came here and found you all trashing the place, who's to say what he would do? This is the Cirque du Freak, my friends. Anything could happen." I laughed at the looks on their faces. They were terrified out of their wits, but clearly did not want to show it. Part of me felt bad for doing this, but it was for their own good, I had to scare them off-they wouldn't leave otherwise. It would get rid of them, at least. Yet at the same time, part of me felt that they deserved it.

"We're not scared of you. What do you take us for?" Mona spat.

"Ah-hem." They all spun around. Mr Crepsley stood in the doorway. "You should not be here. You are trespassing."

As Kerry turned to me and then back to look at Mr Crepsley, I whispered to her...

"Still not scared?"

*Ash*

As I sat, seething, I suddenly realised something which had totally slipped my mind. The conversation with Kerry and her cronies earlier that evening. Was it possible that they were at the Cirque du Freak _right now_? Or were they just mixed up? As far as I knew, they could be even playing some cruel joke on 'Sophia' and Ree, leading them to believe that they were going to see the show they had always wanted to see.

But if they were telling the truth, I thought, they could lead me to my twin. I had no idea where the Cirque was right now, but if they had gone to it it could not be far. If I asked them to tell me where it was, I could find my twin before she left forever, and get the answers to the questions which I desired. I would go alone, of course. As bad as I felt for Ree, I had no desire to bring her into this. She was better off blissfully unaware that her friend had betrayed her. I decided, as I switched the lamp off and prepared to go to sleep, that I would have a word with them the next day.

I would ask them, in passing, where the Cirque was, and if they pointed me in the direction of my twin, well, that was just lucky. If they didn't, well, it was worth a try.

*Sophia*

Kerry and her crew stood frozen to the spot as a smirk spread across Mr Crepsley's face.

"I said, what are you doing here?"

"We came to find Sophia." Leah spoke up. She, out of all of them, was the most likely to answer back-even to a vampire.

"Is that so?" Crepsley began. "I trust, she knew you were coming then?" I opened my mouth to protest but he gave me a look which said 'play along.'

"Of...of course she did."

"Liars. All of you. I happen to know that you entered this room without expressed permission from either myself or my assistant here. Let me tell you this, you should have taken her advice and left while you still had the chance. Nobody knows where you are, do they?" Nobody moved. "I bet you would have kept the fact you were going to a freak show quite a secret." I could hear their hearts beating fast, scanning the room for any means of escape. "So what is to stop me from taking you all and feeding you to the wolf man _right now_? The cirque is leaving soon. You would just be another group of missing people to add to the list." He paused, for effect. I could see he was clearly enjoying this. "But I shall not. You may depart, and think yourselves lucky that you are all still intact, no bones broken, all of you still in the realms of the living. Go on. LEAVE!"

Kerry and her gang ran out of the tent as fast as their legs could carry them, but not before Kerry and I had locked gazes for a final time. I knew what that gaze meant. It meant 'I _will _find out what's going on, mark my words.'

We watched them leave until they had run out of sight, then returned to the tent, where Mr Crepsley motioned me to sit down.

"You did the right thing there." he said. "You controlled yourself admirably, just as I would have done. Indeed, as I did do, once I arrived on the scene."

"Thanks, pet." I said to him. "Y'know, for helping get rid of them."

"It was nothing. They were a group of human youths. They could not have harmed me if they had tried. And you shall address me as Mr Crepsley. Not pet. I am not your pet. '

'Yeah, nothing. Bye Mr Crepsley-pet!' I laughed as I left his tent. But once again, the feeling of foreboding had returned. I recalled the days when I was once a part of Kerry's gang, then the days when myself and my friends loathed them deeply, and then felt oddly sombre as I realised that now, the only way I thought of them was as 'a group of human youths.'

I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, as I had been doing so often lately.

*Ash*

It was the morning of the day in which I had planned to speak to Kerry about the Cirque du Freak, but as it happened, she took matters into her own hands. I was sitting with Gwen, copying her maths homework, when she sidled over and tapped me on the shoulder. I could tell there was something wrong, but what was wrong exactly was anyone's guess.

"I need a word with you. Come with me to the locker room at break and we can talk there." she muttered, then walked off without another word.

"oooh, ominous." Ree said as she joined us at the table.

"Oh my god-i hate it when she does that. It's like, why can't she tell you what's up in front of everyone else?" Gwen glared at Kerry as she said this. "She's such an attention seeker."

"You better tell us what she wants" Ree whispered. "It sounds really exciting."

"Don't worry, I will." I promised, when really I had no intention of doing any such thing. With any luck, she was going to tell me the location of the cirque, and I did not want Ree getting involved in this.

At breaktime, I walked off to the locker room, as agreed. Kerry arrived shortly after I did, and I was shocked to find her looking extremely angry.

"Explain yourself." she simply said, and glared at me like I was some slug-like creature.

"You what?" I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Don't play games with me. You know what I'm on about. Last night. Ring any bells?"

"Please tell me what's going on?"

"You know, when you and that terrifying-i don't even know how to describe him-that _horrible looking guy._ Mr Crepsley. When you threatened me and my friends. I want answers. And fast."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

*Sophia*

_I sat up abruptly, looking out upon a field stretching for miles, covered with strange, dark shapes. Wait. I looked down at the one closest to me. It spelt a word. The word was 'vampaneze.'Curious, I moved on to look at the next one. It read. 'Lord.' The shapes were all words. Hundreds and hundreds of words. A book-i realised-i was in a book. I heard a strangled cry and looked all around me, in all directions, but I could not see where it was coming from. Then I realised I had forgotten to look up. _

_The sky was dark and stormy, except for just right above where I was standing. A strange, bright light which hurt my eyes shone from the gap in the clouds. I forced myself to look, and what I saw was a hand. A giant hand reaching down, and holding onto a struggling figure. Mr Crepsley. _

_The hand suddenly closed into a fist, and Mr Crepsley was gone from sight. Then I saw something truly terrifying. The face of Mr Tiny emerged from the gap in the clouds, and I heard a booming voice._

"_When I have no need for you...i can make you disappear just like that!" He snapped his fingers and the ground began to shake, like an earthquake. _

"_And when I say your story is over. Then it is, no questions asked." He began to laugh as the pages of the book that I was standing upon began ripping and tearing apart, then the cover of the book slammed down upon me, and everything went black. _

"Sophia? Sophia?" Evra's face swam into view as he shook me awake. Whoa. I had never had a nightmare before, as far as I could remember.

"Sophia?" came Evra's voice again.

"Uhh...yeaah...whassgoinnon?"i said sleepily as I made to step out of my hammock.

"Yeah, I think you better sit back down for this. Mr Tiny is here. And guess who he wants to see?"

I pointed to myself and Evra nodded gravely.

*Ash*

Kerry looked at me impatiently for a few seconds, seconds in which I realised that she had not encountered me, but my twin the previous night. I couldn't believe she would have been so stupid as to even talk to Kerry, no less threaten her, whilst at the Cirque. And what was she thinking, bringing Mr Crepsley into this?

Now, as far as Kerry's gang knew, I spent my evenings hanging round a freak circus with a scary, scarred ginger guy. At least they did not know he was a vampire. "Yeah, great relief that is Ash." I thought to myself, and smirked a little.

"You think this is funny, do you? You think it was funny when that horrible man told us if he killed us nobody would ever know? Well actually, what am I saying? Of course you thought it was funny. You were giggling away when you were sitting in that coffin at the Cirque du Freak, watching my life flash before my eyes. Oh and please tell me that was a joke, that coffin. And the blood-argh!" She covered her eyes with her hands. "That made me feel sick. That wasn't real was it? Please tell me that wasn't real? If that was real you are seriously messed up. What do you even do with it, anyway? Are you ill? Do you have some-some _thing _where you think you are a vampire? You need to be locked up."

So much for keeping a low profile. Here I was, trying my utmost to stay undercover, to stay in character, to stay as Sophia, whereas she thought she could do whatever she liked. Oh, I knew some of the thoughts running through her head.

'Hey, look at me, i'm a half vampire. Whatever I do has no consequences-because guess what-i'm not human and _normal rules don't apply_! It might get my twin in a spot of bother, but no matter. I'll just go drink some blood, have a nice kip in a box made for dead people and every thing will be hunky dory.'

And so I, Ash Mead, had to solve yet another problem for my twin.

"I have absolutely no idea what you are on about. Did you say 'Cirque du Freak'? Thats a book, in case it escaped your notice? Do you go around accusing Sadie of getting Voldemort to beat you up? I think you're the one who needs to be locked up-mate-if you confuse books with real life so much.'

Kerry was stunned into silence. But she was not the only one. For unbeknownst to me, Ree was standing behind us, with an unreadable expression in her eyes.

*Sophia*

As I caught my first glance of Mr Tiny, I realised just how frightening he really was. The books could not capture the true terror felt when one looked at him. Once upon a time, I laughed at the mere thought of him, found him amusing. I used to spill my tea on the bus and mutter under my breath "How dare you, Des." Even when I realised he belonged to reality, I still never took on board why people were scared of him. Until that moment. Once you have seen him, and felt fear strike into your heart, you will know what I mean. Perhaps it was the sheer magnitude at which he controlled my life that made me feel this way, people who's biggest decisions were which dessert to have most likely had little to fear from him, as I doubted he would have any interest in meddling with their lives. (I imagined the scene in my head. 'I cannot decide which dessert to have!' *hears a mysterious voice in their head* 'Go on...have both!') However with my life literally resting in his hands, I felt I had the right to be wary.

"Ah. You arrived." he smiled at me, an evil, cold smile.

"Of course I did. What do you take me for? So why have you _summoned_ me then, Des?" I obviously wasn't scared enough to be nice and polite to the man. I mean, he was _evil._

"I just wanted to ask if you had packed. Nothing more, nothing less." his smile never faltered, even when talking. It was as if he did not even move his lips. Creepy.

"Packed? I've only just arrived. Where am I supposed to be going to?" Mr Tiny laughed coldly.

"Ha. Aha. Oh, my dear, surely you know the answer to that. Don't pretend you live by that dismal saying 'yesterday was history, tomorrow is a mystery'... etcetera etcetera blah de blah blah. I know you know your own life story as well as your favourite book. Oh wait-they are one and the same! Fancy that!" He barked another laugh. "Use your brains, child. Tell me, what happens next in the saga of your life?"

I thought about it for a second or two. Where would I be going? I listed all the places Darren had been in my head.

"Vampire mountain? But, no? Mr Crepsley hasn't said anything about leaving? Or going to the council? I assume that's why we are going, right?"

"He will tell you, in time. But be warned, you are leaving tonight. So pack your things if you don't want to leave anything behind. Make sure you have your phone, in case any old friends want to keep in touch. Oh yes. I know you still have that. Don't worry, I will not tell your _master._"

"He's not my _master, _he's my mentor."

"Tomato, tomato."

"Say your goodbyes to the snake freak, little miss half vampire. Oh and one last thing..." He paused, I could see he wanted me to ask what, but I stayed silent.

"If you value your life, you know who to bring with you on this little excursion. Adios!"

I blinked and he was gone.

*Ash*

Ree watched us both for what seemed like an endless minute. Then she spoke.

"So, whats this about then?"

I was about to reply, to say "Uh, nothing." and walk off, but Kerry was quicker.

"I'll tell you, even if she won't." Oh god.

"Kerry-no-please!" I begged, but she carried on.

"I thought you had nothing to be ashamed of, Sophia. I thought it was all make-believe. If it wasn't real you wouldn't care if I told her. So it is real. Because you care. You told me you had nothing to hide. Ha! Nothing to hide except the bottles of blood in that tent and the reason you hang around in a freak circus at night time with all kinds of people. Go ahead Ree, ask me what happened when I went to that circus last night?" Kerry did not even wait for a reply from Ree, she just continued on.

"I saw her, performing on this stage with a spider, so me and the girls followed her to see what was up with that, and she totally just turned on us. Well, we had to find her first. All snug as a bug in a rug in that _coffin_-weren't you? Skipping the part when her and that Mr Crepsley from the show threatened to kill us all, we found bottles of blood and she wouldn't even tell us what it was for? And now she's just denying it all in front of me. Like I am mad. When look at me! Do I look mad to you?"

I expected an angry outburst from Ree, a shocked expression, her to run out of the room, anything. Yet what she did was far stranger.

She looked Kerry straight in the eye and simply said

"Yes."

Kerry became flustered.

"Yes? Yes what?"

"Yes, as in yes you look mad. You're stood in the locker room, shouting full on about freak shows and spiders and god knows what else, and you're saying you're normal? Sort yourself out mate."

She turned and walked away, and I followed her uncertainly.

Yet I was about to find out exactly why she did what she did. As soon as we got out of hearing of the locker room, and Kerry, she stopped abruptly and turned to me.

"You better tell me what she meant by all that. Go."

She looked at me expectantly, and in the pit of my stomach I knew it was time to tell her the truth.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

*Sophia*

I walked outside enjoying the feel of the warm sunlight on my skin after the dark atmosphere which Mr Tiny's visit brought. It was strange, because I used to hate the sun, well, the heat in general. I was always complaining about how it was too hot, in class I used to sit next to the heater so I could sneakily turn it down while nobody was looking. If our teacher spied me, she would always force me to turn it back up.

"No, no Sophia. Don't turn off the heater." she would say. "The rest of us are freezing back here." And I would have to sit and melt for the rest of the lesson. But now, I relished the sunlight, perhaps because after a few years or so-I would know what it was literally like to melt in the heat.

Almost immediately, I bumped into Mr Crepsley.

"Oh. I apologise." He looked flustered. "Although it is quite fortunate that I have literally, bumped into you. I have been meaning to speak with you." I looked at him oddly. Speaking of sunlight...

"Uh...Mr Crepsley?"

"Yes, Sophia?"

"Question: why are you outside? Its daytime? Its sunny?"

"When word got round as to Desmond's unprecedented visit to none other than yourself, I awoke, so should trouble have arisen, I would have been at hand. As it happens, I also needed to speak to you about the plans of this evening."

I already knew what was coming, but I kept my mouth shut.

"We shall be journeying to Vampire Mountain, for the council. I also need to present you as my assistant, to avoid complications. We leave at nightfall. Take a spare change of clothes, that is all that will be required. Shoes shall not be necessary, indeed, they are not allowed to be worn on the journey."

I had forgotten about that part. As Mr Crepsley made to flit to his tent away from the sun's rays, I realised I had forgotten something else too.

"Little people!" I grabbed his arm before he could leave.

"Little people? Whereabouts?" He began to look around, and I started to laugh, despite myself. He just looked so funny, hand to forehead, squinting in the light to see where these non existent little people were.

"I think the sun's getting to you pet." I laughed. "I didn't mean there are little people _right_ _here_, I meant we have to bring the little people. Well, not all of them, that would be like some kind of school trip from the lake of souls-but two of them."

"Wait, may I stop you there?" I noticed he did not tell me not to call him pet that time. Ah, he was getting used to me. "What is the purpose of this?" his expression cleared. "Oh I see. Desmond."

"Yeah, Mr Tiny told me to bring them. He said it was important."

"Well, who are we to disobey our fate, eh? Make sure you collect them before I wake. I do not want them to hold us up in any way."

Well, I thought to myself, after he had gone, I would be disobeying my fate, just as soon as I found out how to.

*Ash*

"Look." I said bluntly. "I know you aren't going to believe a word I am about to say, but I swear its all true."

"Do you swear on your eyes?" Ree asked me.

"Uh...what?"

"Never mind." I took a deep breath and began to speak.

"I'm not Sophia." I paused, waiting for her to say something, but she just looked at me expressionlessly, so I went on.

"I'm not Sophia, I'm Ash. My name is Ash Mead. I'm her twin. We switched places."

"So, you're telling me that she's living where you used to live...pretending to be you?" she said sceptically, raising an eyebrow.

"Not...not exactly." I was edging round the truth, trying to find the best way to tell her.

"Then where is 'Sophia' then?"

"She's at the Cirque du Freak. With Mr Crepsley. The day we met, we went there and she found this...this vampire. And now she's off living with him and I'm stuck here in this false life."

"WHAT? She's at the Cirque du Freak? That isn't even a real place-so how would she be there? Sophia, this isn't even funny." This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Please Ree, you gotta believe me. I don't know what else to say. I honestly can't believe she just left without even telling you, but at the moment Kerry's been having a go at me and blaming me for what Sophia did, well Sophia and Mr Crepsley anyway, so..." I tailed off.

"Why should I help you? You're nothing to me. And why should I help Sophia if she just ditched me."

"I-i...so you believe me then?" I asked hopefully.

"I wasn't saying that."

"Look, I can take you there if you really want. I can prove everything to you."

"Go on then. I dare you."

"Fine, I will. Meet me at the gates in five minutes. We're going on an unofficial school trip."

I walked away and breathed a sigh of relief. At least she was...starting to believe me. Now the only trouble was how to find the Cirque. I was doomed if I could not take us there, she would point-blank refuse to believe my story if I couldn't give her some evidence. I needed to find Kerry, and fast. Preferably within the next two minutes. I checked the locker room. She wasn't there. I checked the library, and the form room. No sign of her. Where else could Kerry be? Aha. The toilets.

I peered around the door to find Kerry looking anxiously in the mirror, dabbing at her eyes with some loo roll. It was obvious she had been crying, and didn't want to admit it. I noticed she wasn't with her gang for once, but didn't question it.

"Kerry..." I approached her cautiously, aware of the time ticking away before I had to be at the school gates.

"Get away from me." Understandable reaction, but I had no time for sympathy.

"I need you to tell me where the Cirque du Freak is."

"Why should I tell you anything? You humiliated me."

"Exactly. And I could do it again. Just. Like. That." I snapped my fingers.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you." She hastily scribbled down directions as I watched over her like a hawk. I snatched them as soon as she finished the last word, and ran off. One thing I noticed, however, was how her hands shook as she wrote the note. But there were more pressing matters to attend to.

*Sophia*

Back in my tent, I chose the various things which I would be taking with me to Vampire Mountain. Selecting a plain navy blue dress to travel in, I packed away what I always used to call my 'crepsley dress', due to the fact it was red and cape like. I looked through the remaining clothes spread over my hammock, and after a moment's thought, took my red jumpsuit as well. I wanted a bit of variety in my life. I knew they provided clothes at the mountain, but to be honest I did not really want anything that Seba chose. No offence meant to Mr Crepsley's old mentor of course. I put my shoes away, due to the fact that I wouldn't be wearing them to the mountain, but then remembered that I had to go outside again so I put them back on. I wondered what to do about my tights. I hadn't actually brought any trousers or anything with me to the Cirque, seeing as I did not tend to wear them as a human, only tights, but now I realised that this might pose a bit of a problem. I supposed I could go out and buy some, but that would mean having to ask Mr Crepsley for money, and if I was going to be spending the night travelling with him to Vampire Mountain I did not really want him to be irritable from being awakened twice in one day. In the end I resorted to cutting the feet off my tights, using some scissors I borrowed off Hans Hands. Upon returning the scissors back to him, I spotted Evra going about his-well, our-jobs, and waved. He stopped what he was doing and came over.

"Oh, thank god." he looked relieved. "I had been waiting for you to come and find me when Mr Tiny had gone. When you didn't, I started to think something really bad had happened."

"Sorry Evra, I was just packing-see?" I indicated the bag of clothes I had slung over my shoulder.

"Packing? Are you and Mr Crepsley leaving already?" I explained to him what had happened during Mr Tiny's visit, the same details I had just told Mr Crepsley. Charna's guts, I thought to myself, does talking to Mr Tiny make you some kind of celebrity round here?

"Vampire Mountain's a pretty harsh place, yknow. You sure there isn't anything you need? Rope, or gloves?"

"I'm not some kind of serial killer pet!" I laughed.

"Oh, I'm not so sure..." he smirked. "Naah I'm joking, you know what I meant. To keep you warm, or whatever."

"Evra. I'm a vampire. I'll be fine."

"A vampire with ripped up tights?" I looked down at my feet. Okay, so I had done a pretty bad job with cutting them. But neatness was never my strong point. Okay, so they were practically falling to bits.

"Actually, I kinda need some clothes."

"Yeah. I can see that."He laughed.

"Oi. But the thing is I have no money, and I don't want to wake Mr Crepsley."

"Oh? Money's not an issue here. I'll come with you to the shops if you want, we can ask Mr Tall for some."

"Okay, sure."

Ten minutes later, we were heading out of the Cirque, towards the city, aiming to be there and back before nightfall. But as it happened, we never actually reached the city. No sooner than we stepped out onto the open road, two figures in the distance made me stop in my tracks.

*Ash*

Getting out of school was easy. Ree had never done anything like this before, but over the years I had skipped school many a time, I was a pro, you could say. So with no complications, we hopped on the number 11 bus, each minute taking us closer to my treacherous twin and the vampire.

I could see Ree was still unconvinced by my tale, but as long as she went along with it far enough to accompany me there, I wasn't bothered. So much for 'not showing her my twin's disloyalty', I was done and dusted with that now, I wanted her on my side.

As the bus rolled on, the conversation turned to the fight I had had with Kerry earlier. For most of the journey, we had been sat in awkward silence, the sort of silence you get when you look exactly like the person who completely betrayed the other. But I wanted more than a dubious associate, I wanted a firm ally. So I started to slowly convert her to my way of thinking, slipping sly digs about my twin into the story every so often, but not so often that she noticed. Sly, huh?

I knew we were nearing the Cirque, but Kerry's description of the way to get there was sadly rather vague. I was about to think about getting off the bus, and walking, when I spotted a familiar face. At first, I thought it was my reflection in the bus window, but then I realised it wasn't. It was just the reflection of myself full stop, in other words, my twin.

"Stop the bus! Stop! Stop!" I yelled at Ree as I frantically pressed the STOP button. The bus came to a standstill and we ran at full pelt off it, onto the road. There was no path. As our transport careered off into the distance, I looked at the pair of people we had just driven past, and by the looks on their faces, they had seen us, too.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

*Ash*

Ree looked from me to my twin, then back to me again in disbelief.

"Its...its...you were telling the truth." I could tell she had not truly believed me until this moment.

"Of course I was. I wouldn't lie to you." I left the words 'unlike Sophia' hanging, although we both knew that was what came next.

"But hang on a second...you did. All those days you were pretending to be _her,_ like nothing was wrong. Does that not count as lying?"

"I didn't know you though, Ree, did I? I was just trying to get by. She was the one who knew you, you and Gwen and Sadie, yet she still disappeared off into the blue."

"I still don't understand how she could do that to me."

"Nor do I."

By this time, Sophia and the other person she was with, a sort of reptile like human creature, Evra, I guessed, had approached us.

"Ash? Ree? What are you doing here?"

I didn't reply. I didn't need to. Ree took care of that.

"What am _I _doing here? What are _you _doing here, more like. Here with...with _Evra_?" Oh dear. I just hoped that she wouldn't be so in awe of all the 'book characters' she would forget why she was here. Luckily, I was not disappointed.

Go on. Explain yourself."

"I...i..." she clearly was ashamed at being caught out. Suddenly Ree spotted something, grabbing my twin's wrist she looked at her fingertips, outraged.

"You've been _blooded?" _

"Well..."

"Well what? Spit it out."

"I have super spit." Ree gave her a weird look. Was that meant to be a joke?

"Well, obviously you do. You're a vampire. Unlike _me_. I used to hate Steve, but now I know exactly how he felt."

"Sorry, I mean, look I don't really know what was going on that day when I just left. I feel really bad...but honestly I didn't even think of anything else bar becoming Crepsley's assistant from the moment I knew he was real."

"Oh and that's supposed to make me feel better is it? The fact you did not even _think_ to tell me anything?"

I stepped back, watching the conversation unfold before my eyes, with a smug sense of satisfaction.

*Sophia*

In the few seconds before the two of them had neared me and Evra, I frantically tried to decide what to say to them. I couldn't understand why they had turned up, out of the blue, or how Ree even knew about where I was, or indeed, how much she knew. But as much as it puzzled me I knew only one thing. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for. The opportunity to talk to Ree about my troubled destiny.

But Ree wouldn't give me a chance to speak. I knew she was fuming, but I thought that if I could just get across to her how much I needed her help, she would relent, and assist me. But I was wrong.

"No, wait, that's not what I meant. Please can you just forget, just for a minute, about how you're still human, and i'm not anymore, and just accept that I really need your help." I hoped she would listen, I really did. If she didn't inform Mr Crepsley of my destiny, no one would.

"_You_ need _my_ help? With what? Cleaning Crepsley's cape or something?" she said. I ignored her jibe.

"Its to do with destiny. Mine, to be specific."

"Oh, right, I get it. So now you're going to start claiming your whole life is run by Desmond Tiny, are you? 'Oh Ree, it wasn't my fault I went off and became a half-vampire, it was destiny.' 'Hey Ree, its my destiny this, my destiny that, so you can't blame me for anything because i'm a puppet of destiny.' yeah right. You ditched me and Ash to go live your dream life, get over it. Just don't start claiming that none of it was your decision just to make yourself feel better, kay?" Hang on, I thought to myself, me and Ash? How have I ditched Ash? But I had no time to dwell on this.

"I'm not lying, Ree."

"Oooh, makes a change."

"Can you just listen to me. I need you to tell Mr Crepsley about what happens in the Darren Shan books. Tell him what happens at the end, and how he dies. Because Darren gave himself a normal life, and some other poor kid his destiny, and that kid is me, and if my mentor knows we might be able to stop it."

"Oh that'll be a nice bedtime story won't it? Hey Mr C, once upon a time there was a ginger vampire, he fell on some stakes and died, Steve laughed. The End. No, Sophia, can you just listen to me? Sort your own life out. And another thing, don't bother pretending to be some hero and defying destiny. Cos that's not you. If you saw someone getting robbed on the street, you wouldn't help. God, you'd probably be the one robbing them. To be honest I'm surprised he blooded you, I thought you would have had evil blood. But oh well, life goes on. Crepsley will die, and you will be sad, and ill be glad. See, look what you've done? You've ruined my favourite books for me. Cos now whenever I read them, instead of seeing Darren's name I'll see the name of some traitor who I used to know.."

Ree walked away, with Ash following behind a fraction later, after hissing "You'll get what's coming to you, twin. Big mistake you made, giving me your life."

And I was left standing next to Evra, but feeling entirely alone.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

*Sophia*

"I don't understand." Evra's voice jolted me out of the void which I may as well have been lost in. "How on earth do you all seem to know how Mr Crepsley is going to die?"

"Oh no." I thought to myself. "Here's the part where Evra wants answers and I have to run away and cry because Desmond commands it to be so." But for some reason, when I opened my mouth, I was free to talk. I could at last tell him evrathing! (ha ha.)

"It's not just us that know. Thousands of people know." Evra's eyes widened. "Except they don't find it at all significant, because they don't know he's real."

"What?"

"Evra, can you read?"

"What sort of a question is that? Who do you know that _can't _read?" He shook his head.

"Uh, Mr Crepsley can't. Or write. Did he not tell you?"

Evra started to laugh.

"Ha...oh thats priceless! I can't believe it!"

"As funny as that is..." I held back a laugh. "It's not really relevant. So you can read, right?"

He nodded in between laughs.

"Well there's something I need to show you." I passed him all of my Darren Shan books. He turned over the first one.

"Cirque du Freak...what? Who's this 'Darren Shan'? And why has he written a book about the Cirque?"

"You're in it." I flicked to a page in the second book that mentioned his name, and read aloud.

"By the way, he said, my name's Evra Von. Evra Von what? I asked. Just plain Von, he said." Evra grabbed the book from me and looked closely at the pages.

"I've never met this guy before in my life! How does he know so much about me? Look, he's describing my scales here." he looked seriously creeped out.

"You have seen him, though."

"Where?"

"You know Steve Leopard? The kid who..."

"Asked Mr Crepsley to blood him and then freaked out when Crepsley said he had evil blood?" Evra interrupted me. "Yeah, I know him. What about him?"

"Do you remember his friend? He had, uh, dark brown hair I think? He liked the spider bit of the show the best. He was really impressed by Octa."

"Vaguely...why? Was that this Darren guy?"

"Yep. These are his diaries, basically. What happened originally was," I explained the story to Evra. "But then he cheated his destiny by going back in time and stopping himself from stealing Octa. So," I finished. "He's living a normal life, while I have to follow in his footsteps."

"But, if you have the books, then..."

"I know what will happen in my life. I know." I finished for him.

"And that's how you and that Ree know how Crepsley will die."

"Exactly. But the thing is, i'm terrified. Mr Tiny's pretty much controlling my life, you know. I tried to tell you all this before, but I physically couldn't. _He_ wouldn't let me. So I can't even take free will for granted anymore."

"And Ree wouldn't help you because...?"

"Because I left her and went and became a vampire. When I was a human we were pretty much obsessed with this story. Of course we thought it was a story. We used to draw vampire scars on our fingertips in Maths and stuff. So she's absolutely livid that I didn't tell her anything."

"But if Des Tiny's controlling your life then..."

"I had no choice. I know. But she doesn't believe that. Why should she?"

"Because she was your friend. She should know you better than that."

"Ah, but Darren and Steve were friends once. Then destiny came between them."

"What?"

"Nothing."  
"Would you mind if I read those books?"

"Evra, I'd rather you didn't." I sighed. "You don't want all that knowledge about your life, its scary. I know what its like, I don't want to inflict that on anyone else."

"Fair enough. But listen, whatever happens, you're not alone. Remember that."

I heard Mr Crepsley calling me in the distance, and looked at Evra.

"I gotta go. Onwards, to Vampire Mountain and all that."

"You never did buy any decent trousers, did you?" I managed a laugh as I sped off into the darkness to find my mentor.

*Ash*

As Ree and I walked in silence down the dusty road to find some kind of bus stop, I replayed the conversation in my head. One part in particular stood out for me.

"I used to hate Steve, but now I know exactly how he felt."

Steve. Steveee. I imagined it in my head, Ash, Ree and Steve, the three musketeers almost, tracking down vampires. Disloyal vampires. I voiced some of my thoughts aloud.

"Steve's out there somewhere, isn't he?"

"Steve would know what to do." Ree mused.

"He would." I echoed.

We looked at each other, an idea forming in our heads.

"I bet we could track him down, y'know. If we wanted to." I said.

"Yeaahh." Ree agreed. "Theoretically speaking, we could tell him where Crepsley and his assistant are."

"Potentially," I added. "We could tell him about the vampaneze. About how they were waiting for a Lord. We could hint to him, in theory, that they wouldn't turn him down, like Crepsley."

Had I gone too far? I worried. Would Ree go for the idea? Yes. She would.

"It's plausible, that he would help us."

"If, this is purely hypothetical of course, he did help us, what would he help us with?"

"When we find him, we can track down the _vampires _together."

She spat the word vampires, although it was too painful to even say. And as I nodded my agreement, it was only then I realised that she had said 'when', not 'if.'

Lets get this show on the road, I thought.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

*Sophia*

Mr Crepsley was waiting impatiently for me, with two little people by his side.

"At last, you have chosen to make an appearance." he commented.

"We are now behind schedule, but no matter. We have at least two weeks before the council begins."

We set off, and I was pleased to note that one of the little people had a limp in his left leg. It would have been awkward if we had brought the wrong little people with us, Harkat would have been left at the cirque and we would never find out that he could speak. Having said that, I had to remember to call him 'lefty' as opposed to Harkat. As far as he knew, nobody bar Mr Tiny knew who he was yet.

We talked as we walked, me and Mr Crepsley. I had never really had much of a chance to bond with him before, as lame as that sounds, so I enjoyed our conversations. He taught me things about being a half vampire, such as which animals we could not drink blood from, (which included snakes, toads, cats) and about the history between vampires and vampaneze. I told him things about my old life, some of which he just couldn't seem to get his head around. We came to a stop about an hour before dawn, at a way station. Mr Crepsley explained that there were many of these on the route to vampire mountain, to help weary vampire travellers on their way. It was a cave, with a couple of coffins at the back, and a box with some matches to light a fire and bottles of blood.

We sat down on the dusty cave floor, and Mr Crepsley handed me one of the vials, which I drank gratefully. We had brought some food with us, but it would only last us a day or two. After that, we would have to catch and cook things ourselves. So I made a fire, while Mr Crepsley unpacked our dinner.

"So, this device...it plays music?" He was talking about my ipod, which I had in one ear as I was working.

"Yeah, thats right." I told him. "You press this button, see, and you can change the song."

"But, only you can hear this music, that is correct?"

"Well yeah, but you can too, if you put these in your ears." I showed him the headphones. He looked at them interestedly, then put them in. I had turned the volume right down, for as a vampire he had sensitive hearing, but he still got startled when I pressed play. After a while, he got used to it, and began to enjoy the music. He passed me one of the pieces of meat he had been cooking, I couldn't really tell what it was, but it was no worse than anything from aldi, and pointed at the screen of the ipod.

"What is this piece of music entitled?" he queried. Aww, he has to ask me to read things for him, I thought.

"It's called 'i'm not dead'" I told him.

"Well that much is obvious." he said. "If she was dead, she would not be singing this."

I laughed, and he handed me back my ipod.

"Quite enough of that, I think."

"You're right, we don't want you getting addicted to human technology, do we? Next thing you know you'll be asking the princes to get Sky so you never miss Hollyoaks."

"i never miss the Holy Oak? Why would I not want to miss a religious tree?"

"No, pet. Hollyoaks. Its a television programme."

"Oh, right."

What Crepsley said reminded me of Gwen. Once upon a time, we used to call Hollyoaks 'the Holy Oak' too. I wondered how she was holding up, whether she had been dragged into whatever Ash and Ree were up to. I hoped not. Not because I didn't want her to hate me like they did, though obviously I didn't, but because I didn't want to have destroyed her life like I had apparently destroyed Ree's and Ash's. When Crepsley was not looking, I sneakily checked my twitter for the first time since becoming a vampire, just to see what was happening back in their world.

I typed in gwenx, and looked at her twitter page. Spotting a tweet which read '#thosedays when you feel like you aren't even friends anymore', and wondered if she was talking about me. Knowing what Ash was capable of, she probably was. Great. I didn't know whether to be glad or sad. I was glad, because it meant Gwen wasn't being dragged into this mess, but at the same time I felt kinda dejected that she would think that it was me, not Ash, that she was complaining about on twitter.

After dinner Mr Crepsley retired to his coffin. He asked me if I would prefer to sleep on the floor, but I declined, recalling how comfy they were from the last and only time I had been in one. I stepped in and shut the lid, closing my eyes, and falling into sleep.

*Ash*

Gwen and Sadie were oddly distant with me the next morning. The conversation didn't flow like it normally did, they talked amongst themselves but excluded me slightly.

As Ree walked into the room, ready to go to Chemistry, the reason for them ignoring me became apparent.

"Where were you guys yesterday?" Sadie asked us. It would have been a casual enough question, except I knew that there was something up with them, which made me suspicious.

"We were at a funeral." Ree jumped in. "Of an old friend of mine. I asked Sophia to go with me, for y'know, moral support. I wanted to give them a proper send off."

"Oh right." Gwen looked uncomfortable. She blatantly did not believe Ree, but she was scared of telling her so, because of the touchy subject. Wow. Ree was a better liar than I had given her credit for.

We walked off towards Chemistry, Sadie and Gwen in front, Ree and I lagging behind. Although we were walking as a group, occasionally talking, I could sense that there was still a rift between us.

As I looked around the lab disinterestedly, Ree hit my arm with her pen and I turned round sharply.

"Have you seen what we're doing?"

"Chemistry?"

"No. Look at what we're using." She passed me a piece of litmus paper and I realised what she meant.

The litmus paper had reminded first her, and now me, of Steve.

Now all we had to do was find him.

Next stop. ICT Room.

After the lesson, walked off in the direction of the ICT Room, but to our surprise Gwen and Sadie ran to catch up with us.

"Hey gang!" Sadie said. "Are you going to do your ICT?"

"Er...yeah?" I said, knowing that was far from the case.

"Oh god we're so behind too!" Gwen exclaimed, looking stressed. "I'm seriously stressing about this, it's so lame how we have less than a week to finish it."

"I know, right?" Ree said, giving me a sideways look that said quite clearly, why are they here?

"Come on then...we've only got about half an hour and there's so much to do!" Sadie and Gwen propelled us forwards into the computer room, where we stood with a pained expression on our faces. So much for searching for Steve.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

*Sophia*

We had been on the road to vampire mountain for two days or so, barely stopping. The fact that we had managed to find a way station that first night had been a total fluke, as since then we had to stay in various clearings and hollows. We had to sleep outside in the open air, but we did not really feel the cold. Having said that, I did rather miss my hammock at the Cirque.

My tights had completely fallen to bits by now, and so my legs were covered in scrapes and scratches from all the rugged terrain we had been walking over, and the various thorns and sharp branches we had had to scramble through. Mr Crepsley told me that there was some type of tree sap which I could apply to my skin making it harder to cut, but so far we had not come across it. So I had to just grit my teeth and bear it. I had complained to Mr Crepsley that it was because we were travelling at night, rather than in the daytime, but he remarked that my argument had flaws, as I could see in the dark perfectly as a half vampire, and that it was my own fault for not providing suitable attire, and my tendency to not look where I was going.

He said I would just have to be patient and wait until we got to Vampire Mountain, and I glared at him but secretly I felt quite cool wandering about the wilderness in feeble clothing, I felt like Bear Grylls, doing a programme entitled 'Living with Vampires' or something.

Wait, that sounded more like a nature programme like Frozen Planet. Oooh, I thought. Maybe David Tennant could narrate my programme. I was sitting on my own in the clearing which we had chosen to stay that day, apart from the two little people who were a metre or so away, watching the sky turning from navy to pink, waiting for Mr Crepsley to return, imagining this, when I heard some birds fly away and scatter from a nearby tree. I jumpe

d up, then caught myself. No, Sop, why are you getting startled? It's just birds, I thought to myself. Then a shadow loomed over me and I knew it wasn't 'just birds' at all.

*Ash*

Following the failed attempt earlier in the week of searching for Steve, Ree and I had been planning the best way to find him. We had decided to try all the various social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to initally find him, but of course then we had to plan what we were going to say. Ree told me we should write a script of what we should say to him, but I thought it might freak him out a little if we sent him a message saying something like;

"Steve. Our names are Ash and Ree, and we know what happened with 'Vur Horston' a while ago. We would like to join you in your quest to find him. PLEASE REPLY."

So we thought we better actually locate him first, then see what happened from there.

The problem was, finding time to do it. There was always people around at lunchtime, Ree and Sadie to be precise, but not just them. The ICT teacher was always in her classroom poking her nose into what people were looking at on the screen, and there were always annoying little year 7s running around and playing games on the computers. What we really needed, was somewhere in which people did not often go, so would be undisturbed, and such an opportunity came up almost immediately.

We were sitting in Physics, waiting for the teacher to arrive, when someone from lower down the school stuck her head round the door.

"You'll be getting a cover today." She told me. "Corb's not in." Corb was what everyone called Dr Corbstein, the physics teacher. She terrified most people, aside from those in my year who had known her long enough to be 'immune' to her sharp, snide comments she threw around the room at people like confetti. And that was when I realised that this room would be the perfect place to conduct our hunt for Steve. Nobody would likely be looking for Corb, who would want to? So we could use the computer in the corner of the room as long as we wanted.

As we went to put our stuff away in the form room before returning to Corb's lab, I noticed Kerry, sitting in the corner talking to her friends. Since our fight, she had not been seen in school, until today. She looked frazzled.

"That's her little 'confrontation corner'" Ree whispered as we walked past her. It was such a relief having someone know my secret, that could explain things to me. "She always drags her friends there when she wants to sort things out within her little gang." At that moment Kerry stood up sharply and walked stiffly over to the other side of the room, towards us in fact. I could see Leah and Ally whispering behind her back.

I realised that she was not walking towards us, but towards Sadie and Gwen. They seemed to have forgiven us for our 'disappearance' a couple of days ago, but I felt like whenever I spoke to them I was skating on thin ice, one slip and everything could fall. Kerry gave them a nod, one which said plainly 'come over here.' Ree gave me a worried glance, but I thought it was probably nothing. Kerry was the least of our worries.

Leah, Ally and Mona walked out of the room just in front of us, as I shut the door behind me I saw Kerry leading Gwen and Sadie towards the confrontation corner, and only then did I realise that she had her camera in her hand.

**Review? XD**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

*Sophia*

I turned my head slowly, for fear of what I would find. I clapped eyes upon a purple faced, red haired guy, in other words, the first vampaneze I had ever seen. He looked startled when he saw me, and then I realised why. I had been sitting downwind, so he had not been able to tell that I was not human. I reckoned he had probably been planning to feed on me, then became unsettled when he saw my scars and realised I was in fact a half-vampire. Not least because that meant that my mentor was most likely nearby. Speaking of my mentor, where was Crepsley when you needed him?

I looked around, for something that I could use as a weapon to fend off the vampaneze for at least a little while, or as long as I could, but there was nothing around. All I had were my sharp nails and half vampire skills, but they were nothing compared to that of a fully grown vampaneze. Although my brain was frantically panicking about how to resolve the crisis that had arisen, my mouth decided it would try and talk itself out of the dilemma. Except for me, that resulted in facing a dangerous, startled vampaneze, looking him in the eye and saying

"Alright pet. How's it going?"

Oh great, I thought, as soon as the words had left my lips. Now my yorkshire heritage has got me killed. But suddenly, and for no apparent reason whatsoever, the vampaneze turned and sloped off into the trees. I attempted to give chase, but soon lost him in the vast forest. I thought I had spotted him again once, but it turned out to be nothing. The strange thing was, I could have sworn I saw a flash of blue, but that was not right. The vampaneze had been dressed in dark colours, browns and greys. Could it be there was more of them?

I turned, to find Lefty watching the scene intently. At least, I assumed he was. I could not actually see his face, it was covered by the hood. I wondered where the other little person was, probably off finding food somewhere.

I was about to shout for Mr Crepsley to inform him of my run in with the odd vampaneze, when Lefty turned to me and spoke, what I knew were the first words any vampire had ever heard him speak.

"I wonder...why...he ran?"

*Ash*

But there was no time to dwell on what this meant, I thought as I paced the physics lab, while Ree sat at the computer. We had decided not to look for him on twitter, as his name could range from ' SteveLeopard' to ' IAmNOTEvil', or even something completely out of the blue like ' lostinspace'. Whereas with Facebook, people tended to go by their real names. The school had recently blocked all these websites, according to Ree, but because we were using a teacher's computer we had access to them.

"What shall I type in?" she asked me.

"Uh...Steve Leopard?"

"But what if he uses his real name and he's under 'Steve Leonard'?"

"We can try both! Unless we keep talking and we run out of time!" I don't know why we were panicking so much. I mean, it was not as if we had a deadline or anything. I suppose I felt like the longer we left it, the longer my twin would be left roaming about with vampires when she should be meeting her demise.

"Why is his name so lame?" Ree glared at the computer in frustration. "There's way too many Steve Leonards."

"I thought I said to try Steve Leopard first?"

"Does it really matter?" Ree said as she scrolled through all the many different Steve Leonards.

"Male, 41, Cambodia."

"No."

"Male, 23, Sydney."

"No."

"What? This one's Female? 14, Arizona."

"Er, no."

"How about this one. Male, 16, Cardiff."

"Click on him!" I pointed to the screen excitedly, "What does it say?"

"Err, his interests include..." Ree read aloud. "Abseiling, making marmalade and watching Top Gear. And his favourite quotes...are all from family guy."

"Yeaah...somehow I don't think that's him."

Ree looked through in silence for a few minutes while I rifled through Dr Corbsteins desk to see if there was any food I could take. The only thing she had was dried pineapple, which looked a bit suspicious, but I ate it anyway and it turned out to be quite nice.

"Hang on! Eee, Ash, stop being a thief and come over here!" Ree called.

"Yeah?" I asked interestedly.  
"This one is 'Steve Leopard, Male, 16, location not specified..."

"He could be from like Venezuela or something?"

"How do we know Steve _isn't _from Venezuela?" Ree looked at me pointedly.

"Fair enough." I shrugged.

"Anyway, listen to this. His about me thingy says 'i'm not evil.' That definitely sounds like the Steve we 'know'."

"Does it show you anything more?"

"Naa, his account's settings are on high privacy or whatever."

"What d'you reckon?" I asked. "Shall we send him a message?"

"What's there to lose?"

I took that as a yes. Taking the computer off Ree, I clicked on new message. How to begin, I wondered?

"Hello." I started, but Ree cut me off.

"Put 'hiya pet :)'" she told me. "It makes you look friendly."

"I don't think Steve really does 'friendly'." I retorted.

"Fine, miss the smiley face off then!"

I began again.

"Hiya pet, our names are Ash and Ree."

"Should we really give him our real names?" Ree asked.

"Well, we want to be honest with him, don't we?"

"It might not even _be _him though!"

"I guess, but lets think positive!"


End file.
